Slashers and Spacemen and Sasquatch, Oh My! – “Moon Lake” created by Dan Fogler

“Hitchcock on Acid” is a phrase I’ve heard several times to describe Dan Fogler’s new graphic novel, “Moon Lake.”

The description is so true.

Take the Twilight Zone, every horror movie you can think of and some sci-fi ones as well (especially the ones with gratuitous female nudity) and throw in a bunch of pop-culture references and a handful of fart jokes – and you’ve got “Moon Lake.”

Please don’t read that last sentence as me saying I didn’t like it.  On the contrary, I found it twisted, dark, funny, and pretty sick, which was exactly what I was expecting.

“Moon Lake” is a collection of stories with wicked illustrations that all have loose ties to the central  title place.  Presided over by a Hitchcock-esque (albeit with a tendency for partial nudity, cheerleader costumes, and cursed with some serious gas) narrator, the stories all bleed into each other, and the whole thing is a clever way to pass the time.  The stories and illustrations come from a group of authors and artists, and the differing styles really shine as each story looks completely different from the rest.

Of all the stories, I think my favorite was “Desensitized Deirdre.”  This gross-out fest, about a cheerleader who has a breakdown and massacres a ton of people while imagining she’s in a land not unline Toontown from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” is over the top in it’s goriness, and yet actually quite smart underneath it all.  The illustrations in this particular story (by artist Jeff Gornow) are especially great.

Creator Dan Fogler is better known as an actor.  Being a Broadway nerd, I know him best for his Tony-Award winning role in the original Broadway cast of ‘The 25th Annual Spelling Bee,” but he’s also got a slew of movies under his belt as well – such as “Balls of Fury,” “Good Luck Chuck,” the upcoming “Take Me Home Tonight,” and “Fanboys.” (Someday, I promise, we’ll talk about how I watched “Fanboys” when I was high on vicodin after getting my wisdom teeth pulled.)

Admittedly, “Moon Lake” probably isn’t for everyone.  But, if you’ve read the above and are intrigued – it was made for you.

Camp Horror, Slashers, Boobs, Monsters, and Spacemen.  Done and Done.

Here’s a really splendid interview about “Moon Lake” with Fogler from ComicBookResources.com if you want to know more.